Dr. Tanya M. Peres

Contact Details:

Dr. Tanya M. Peres is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, with a specialization in Zooarchaeology. Dr. Peres earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida (2001) and an MA (1997) and BA (1995) from the Florida State University, both in Anthropology. She is a Registered Professional Archaeologist since 2001 and has nearly two decades of field and lab experience on academic and applied prehistoric and historic archaeological projects across the Southeastern United States, Panama, Mexico, and Scotland. Dr. Peres is interested in the relationships between humans and their environments, and humans and animals - especially in terms of subsistence and how animals were incorporated into the native worldview. She is the director of the Middle Cumberland Archaeology Project and the Rutherford County Archaeology Research Program. As a zooarchaeologist Dr. Peres collaborates on numerous projects with local, state, and federal agencies as well as CRM firms. She has researched and published on zooarchaeological topics ranging from ancient and historic subsistence practices to the use of animal bone and teeth implements in indigenous tattooing traditions to the symbolic power of animals in native cosmologies, medicine, and spiritual practices.

Every project directed by Dr. Peres includes a public outreach component via hands-on site and lab volunteer days, project blogs, social media, and a positive working relationship with university and local media outlets. Dr. Peres regularly presents on archaeology to local community groups including the Boy Scout Merit Badge University, among numerous others. Most recently Dr. Peres, as President of the Tennessee Council for Professional Archaeology, successfully led an effort at the state capitol to name a Tennessee State Artifact (2014) and to designate September as Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month (2015). Both of these very public acts of legislation are meant to encourage Tennesseans to learn more about, and work to help preserve, the state's varied and irreplaceable cultural history.